Toronto Raptors: Does Playoff Failure put Nick Nurse on the Hot Seat?

If the Toronto Raptors lose out to the Philadelphia 76ers in Round 2 of the playoffs there could be a catalog of consequences. Does this put Nick Nurse on the hot seat?

Trouble is brewing once again for the Toronto Raptors.

A familiar feeling of dread has consumed the fanbase once more, and the Raptors failure to progress past the second round of the playoffs for the third successive year is beginning to loom large within the realms of possibility.

If the worst case scenario does indeed occur and the Raptors are bounced out of the playoffs by a talented Sixers team, a lot of people will probably demand answers. Rightfully so, might I add.

This team was destined for greatness by its own standards. Arguably the deepest and most talented team the North has ever seen, Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster assembled a stellar cast of stars and role players that was pinned to challenge the Warriors atop of the NBA pyramid.

Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green arrived in Toronto and Ujiri held a press conference that featured a rousing endorsement of a city that needed to believe in itself. He then went one step better, acquiring Marc Gasol in a blockbuster trade in February, and the Raptors were immediately earmarked for a deep playoff run.

And now, here we are, three months later. Assuming the worst once again.

Down 2-1 against an opponent that holds all of the momenta, the Raptors could well be on their way to another summer of soul-searching, looking to forge a new path.

The question is; where does all of this leave Nick Nurse?

If the Raptors do indeed lose to the Sixers, and especially in a similar fashion to Game 3, could Nurse be on the hot seat after just one season in charge?

Well, in short: yes, and no.

Nurse was seen as an experimental coach upon his hiring. Someone who would be more than willing to deviate from traditional ways if the chips weren’t falling.

In fairness to Nick, he was that guy in the regular season. If not always by his own choice. Proving to Kawhi Leonard that the Raptors were a worthy choice past this one season meant that they would have to gain his trust, which would require load management. That led to Nurse tinkering with lineups and rotations, looking to gain an advantage on the competition by forecasting what would and would not work in April and beyond.

Some things worked, some things didn’t. As is the life of a coach. It’s about figuring out when to roll the dice that sometimes defines who they are, though.

Much like his predecessor, Nurse has at times struggled to deviate from the established lineups and attempt to roll the proverbial dice. For a while, that’s looked to be the case against the Sixers.

At first, it was failing to save the soul of Serge Ibaka and stick Gasol primarily on the Sixers All-NBA center, Joel Embiid.

Embiid has bullied Ibaka every time the two are on the court together, and that has been too often. Ibaka just isn’t strong enough to deal with the brute force of Embiid. Luckily, Nurse adjusted and saved Ibaka in Game 3, but Embiid had his best game of the series – and maybe his career – when facing up with Gasol more frequently.

It’s been the sloppiness of his decision making that has come back to haunt the Raptors at certain times, but at other times, the situation seems unavoidable.

The Sixers have a clear defensive weak link in their starting lineup and it’s J.J. Redick. A lot of playoff basketball is about hunting those mismatches. Think the Cavaliers hunting switches onto DeMar DeRozan or killing C.J. Miles in the post with Kevin Love last year. Ugh, there’s too many Raptors examples.

Yet, even suffering through all of that existential pain, the Raptors aren’t hunting Redick. Whether it’s by design or just a failure to assess their matchups, it’s not happening. Toronto needs to attack Redick as much as possible. Force him to exert himself on defense and you might find that he’s not zooming around the court like that red Hot Wheels car you always hated.

But, like before mentioned, sometimes the situation is seemingly unavoidable.

Kawhi Leonard can’t play 48 minutes a night, we know that. The man does need some sort of rest, but even in the two minutes he did get some sort of hydration, the Raptors were killed.

We’ve seen the bench’s inability to create any sort of advantage kill the Raptors numerous times this postseason. They are averaging 10 points per game in the Sixers series and their failures could be linked back to Nurse once again.

It’s once again linked to his refusal to mix and match lineups, and the combination of Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, and Ibaka has seen 32 minutes on the court together in the last three games.

The results?

Um, to put it delicately: absolutely awful.

Yet, we still see all three on the court together for large stretches, and it just isn’t working. Nurse’s failure to recognize that, or to even tackle it head on, is perplexing, and if it leads to the Raptors dismissal from the playoffs, it could lead to Nurse’s dismissal from the Raptors.

Still, Nurse may have a potential pass, now that Pascal Siakam is a doubt for Game 4 on Sunday afternoon.

The series is in more jeopardy than originally thought if Pascal Siakam doesn’t play on Sunday, and Kawhi Leonard will most likely have to take on a bigger role than before. That’s unrealistic, so by definition, it’s unrealistic for the Raptors to dig themselves out of that hole.

In which case, a lot of it depends on where you place Nurse’s role with the team in the future. Can he be a guy that can evaluate and produce talent?

It’s possible, he has put Siakam in a position to succeed this season, even if the ascension is primarily down to Siakam’s willingness to make himself better in every avenue.

It’s back to “if” again, but if the Toronto Raptors do fail to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, then Nick Nurse will undoubtedly be on the hot seat. Failing to push this team – this incredible team – over the hump and towards its ceiling, which isn’t Round 2 of the playoffs, can only be seen as a failure.

One season never seems enough to really put your stamp on the team, and with the situation Nurse has found himself in at times hasn’t helped. This team has been unhealthy for large stretches and Nurse has had to dodge and weave his way around that.

That’s the trials and tribulations of an NBA head coaching job, though.

Nick Nurse, meet the hot seat.